Worlds
by Ethuiliel
Summary: REDONE! Nessa is a normal girl. She goes to high school, she gets crushes, and she is the only person in any of the countless Worlds who can fix a rather large problem. The Worlds are melting into each other, that's normal, right!
1. We're not in Kansas Anymore

1Howdy y'all! This is Ethuiliel, and I'm back (sorry, ya can't get rid of me that easily) With a new and improved ficcy! For those of you who read the first version, I am sorry for taking so long to upgrade it. Now on to our scheduled program: _Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore... _

Nessa was a normal 14 year old girl. She got decent grades. She wasn't popular, but she had a best friend and several other close acquaintances who were deemed worthy of friendship, and she liked to blow things up on her computer. Her short brown hair hung around her face, and she was dressed in simple blue jeans with a large black T-shirt on.

"Bye Mom, bye Dad! I'm going to hang out with Chelsea for a little bit," Nessa shouted over the roar of their neighbor's lawnmower.

"Okay dear, be back by five!" her mom shouted back.

Nessa darted around the corner towards an old vacant lot to wait for her friend when something caught her eye.

_Now I wonder what that is..._ she thought when she stopped to further investigate it. _I have about five extra minutes before Chelsea will show up._

Nessa slowly inched towards the shadowy corner where she had seen movement. She crouched down and spread her arms, succeeding to look like a drunk duck and continued creeping forwards. When she was only three feet away from the black smear, she rolled on her stomach and marine-crawled the rest of the distance between her and it. Not knowing why she was so wary of the dark hole, Nessa stuck her head inches from it, and felt a short jolt in her core.

Farther and farther down she fell, her lungs seemed to stop working and when Nessa tried to gulp a breath it felt like she was breathing in acid. Eventually, Nessa stopped her decent and was suspended in midair. She was lightly perched upon an invisible floor and all around her a voice echoed across unseen walls.

"Child, you have been chosen for an important task," Nessa was hard pressed to decide what gender the voice belonged to, and eventually decided that it was neither masculine nor feminine, "The Fabric between Worlds is starting to fray, and only you can fix this problematic dilemma."

_So some Fabric-thing is getting ripped up, and that is bad?_ She thought, and was very surprised when the words boomed out around her.

"Correct. Worlds are slowly melting into each other, and soon there will be no way to distinguish them," the voice once again floated around her, teasing her senses. For one word she would hear it and the next time she might taste it, and another sentence might be communicated to her through smell.

_What do you mean...Worlds?_ She asked the thing.

"Each World has a universe, and a thin veil of Fabric -for the loss of a better word- keeps these Worlds separate. Of course, some things are going to be seen by other Worlds, creatures with the ability to see more than others have more 'creativity' than those who can see very little. You are going to a world that a woman called Tamora Peirce has written about," the voice explained, "Some Worlds are very similar, and others are nothing alike."

_Well Bob, what do you want _me_ to do about it?_ Nessa was perplexed, she was 14! What was she supposed to do, get onto the school board!

"Child, you have the power to shut the doors in the Fabric, the one that you went through, it leads to a place you are familiar with," the newly-named Bob told Nessa.

_You mean, I get to go running around some place that I have only read about_ _before now, and search for these little shadow-things, and then use some power that_ _I didn't even know I had to close them... cool._ Nessa could have sworn that Bob rolled his eyes, before he let her go.

The thing holding her up fell away, letting her drop again. It was almost like she was in zero gravity, but as she drifted down from her old position, she started to see things. To her right there was a large pine tree, and there was snow everywhere. The longer she fell, the more she could see. Nessa was lying in the snow with a rock digging into her back. She could only half-feel the snow that was lightly falling on her, and it was cold. The air around her was brittle, and she could almost _feel _the one jarring note among the rocks. Slowly turning, Nessa saw the tear that she came through.

_What do I do?_ She asked Bob, hoping he was still listening to her.

Something in her subconscious shifted, and she raised her arms so she made a 'T' shape with her palms in and brought them together with one swift clap.

"Master Numair, are you sure that the surge came from over here?" Nessa heard two people coming towards her.

"Yes, the woman that the Goddess told Alanna was coming should be right...about...here," suddenly, the people came around a tree, one of which Nessa immediately recognized to be Numair Salmalin from _The Immortals _series.

"Hello, I am Nessa Ancolimon, and I was sent here to fix some things," she said, bowing to the mage and his student.

"Yes, we are very grateful to Mithros for finding you, the Goddess said you would straighten out some of the strange things that have been happening," Numair smiled warmly at Nessa, and did _not _expect what she said next.

"Your deities had nothing to do with it, this is bigger than anything you have encountered before. Your gods may have power over you, but anywhere else they would just be mages," Nessa held her head high and said what she did with confidence. _They need me, I have the same, or maybe even more status than him._

"Really? Well, one way or another I was sent by his Majesty, King Jonathan of Tortal to escort you to the palace and make sure you are treated respectably," Numair nodded to hisstudent and the young boy quickly held out a richly-embroidered cloak and Nessa wrapped it about her shoulders.

_How the _hell_ did I get talked into this?_ Nessa asked herself angrily. She was sitting at something she could have sworn was an early shot at vanity-desk-things and was being poked, tugged on, and dusted with various torture devices the ladies-in-waiting called "hair curlers". Claiming that they would make her an angel on earth. This lulled her into a sense of false security, and then they pounced.

"Oh my Miss Nessa! The color orange looks so good on you!" One them screeched when she came out in a horrid orange thing with a disgustingly low neckline made acceptable with red gauze, pink roses around the hem, and all topped off with red and pink _streamers_ woven into her gently curled hair. _Why me?_

When Nessa stepped onto the staircaseleading down to the tables, she knew Tamora Pierce did not glorify Tortal at all. The only thing that distinguished this as not a vision was the fashion choice that most of the occupants of the room had. Leotards! Well, that's what it looked like to her anyway. _The world's first manly pantyhose. Glory glory._ She thought in monotone. The next thing she saw, though, took her breath away.

HAHA! Cliffy type thing. I'll tell you one thing, it has to do with her powers. Now, please tell me, is it better? Worse? Am I a better writer than when I was nine! The only way for me to know is in a review! I want three of those jolly things before I update, right Owen?

Owen: Sounds like a jolly plan to me!

Ethu-chan gets bopped on head by somesortofperson and pansgod You can't say that word!

Ethu- Heheh, don't ask...


	2. Meeting an Important Charachter

1Howdy! I'm back! Usually I would wait for three reviews, but I have, like, 22 reviews from before, so I figured I would just update A.S.A.P. until I have, I'd say about three chapters at least

When Nessa stepped onto the staircaseleading down to the tables, she knew Tamora Pierce did not glorify Tortal at all. The only thing that distinguished this as not a vision was the fashion choices. Most of the occupants of the room had leotards. Well, that's what it looked like to her anyway. _The world's first manly pantyhose. Glory glory._ She thought in monotone. The next thing she saw, though, took her breath away.

Auras surrounded each of them, every person in the room had a slightly different aura, some more corrupt than others. Like the one around a young man who looked like what Joren was described as in The Protector of the Small. The sight was breathtaking, waves of color wrapping around each other and constantly moving were entrancing, almost making her miss the introduction, almost.

"The Sorceress Nessa, from the realm of Earth," the herald announced, making her cheeks turn a nice, rosy red almost as bright as her dress, and certainly clashing with it. Glad that she had no life, Nessa knew exactly how to enter, curtsy, and all that jazz from studying Tamora Pierce books and Medieval Europe books.

The night went by in a blur, and she was never let down by the array of auras around all of them. (Ethuilial- Dare ya to say that ten times fast! I only got to 8...) But with those lights everywhere, her eyes stared to grow sore, so she decided to seek out a deserted corner somewhere. _Those things are everywhere, for secret lovers or something, right?_

There may have been corners, but none of them were deserted. Totallians definitely knew how to make trysts work. Flushing, Nessa sought out somewhere, _anywhere_ without people. But at least her little expedition was educational. She learned that emotions affected auras. For example, when indulging in dirty pleasures, your aura would get _warmer_ in a sense.

Eventually, Nessa found her way out of the stuffy castle and into one of the little flower gardens, without any pining intended's. When her eyes finally got used to the dark, she started to think. _Why can I only see auras here? At home, nobody can! Or if they did, they didn't tell anybody, or when they did, they were locked up in crazy homes. Actually, for all I know everybody can, but since it isn't considered _normal_, people cover it up by turning blind eyes on people who admit they can. But then why have I only just started being able to recently? I'M GONNA' KILL YOU, BOB! _

_"Do not attempt it. And the reason you can now see auras is indeed myself. There is one base World. You came from it, there is nothing special about it, no Gifts, no dragons, and that is why it is so important. If it gets tainted then we must make the tainted version its own World."_

_But doesn't that mean you made my home a different place!_

_"Yes, there is still a Nessa on a world who never was stopped by the tear, and she carried on whatever mission she had."_

_Jeeze, you really like to mess with people's lives, don't you?_

"_It is not advised"_ before Nessa could respond, however, she saw another aura approaching fast, and frantically.

A girl who was about a head taller than Nessa came tearing through the bushes, seemingly running from something. Her long black hair was allowed to flow freely down her back, except for the top layer, that was pulled into a pony-tail at the back of her head. The small expanse of midriff that was exposed was a very light tan, showing off an amethyst stud on her belly-button. Her 3/4 sleeves let stray twigs and branches cut at her arms, the same with her calves and shins.

"Hey! Hey, wait! What's the matter?" Nessa called out, against all common sense. The wild-looking girl turned around and looked at Nessa.

"I'm trying to get away from whatever witchcraft brought me here" she replied breathing heavily, leaning on the bench to catch her breath, "The Enchanted Forest will never let go of someone if it doesn't want to! And it certainly wouldn't want to!" _Enchanted Forest! Like in Dealing with Dragons, that Enchanted forest! _

_"Yes indeed, this young woman came from the World Patricia C. Wrede wrote about" Well, thqt helps alot!_

"Why wouldn't the Enchanted Forest let you go?" Nessa inquired of the runaway.

"I, well, I, wait, wh am I telling you?" the girl turned a suspicious eye on Nessa, "I don't trust strangers."

"Understood," Nessa nodded. Barely a moment passed before:

"Hi, I'm Cassandra."

"Hi, I'm Nessa."

"I stole something from the dragons and now everyone's after my head, sorta' makes me feel special in a way, but..."

"I know what you mean. I have to save all of the Worlds from bleeding into each other because the fabric is unraveling, but I'm only 14! Now everyone wants a piece of me."

"I only understood half of that, but it still sounds sucky."

"It is."

Nessa and Cassandra talked for a while, and found out they actually had a lot in common. And when Nessa discovered that Cassandra had been pulled through a tear to get there, she got really excited. They decided to meet in the same place when "The sun has just barely made it over that mountain" and go look for the tear to close it.

"After that, would you come with me to close the other ones? I could use all the help I can get!" Nessa laughed.

"Yes I will and yes, you do!" Cassandra shot back.

"Hey!"

After they parted, Nessa made her way to the rooms she was given on her arrival. The

was indeed like a "rat warren", but still fascinating for Nessa. The endless corridors and passageways each had their own quirks and oddities, and finder her way back to her room wasn't hard when she gave up on "Left, right, left, left," in favor of "Statue man, carpet stain, picture of a fat lady singing..."

Walking into her room, Nessa saw a servant putting something that looked like a _cage_ in her bed.

"Excuse me, but, err, what are you doing?" Nessa asked tentatively. The servant, however, was even more timid and did a very good impression of Lalasa in Nessa's opinion, by doing no less than jumping, twirling around, squeaking and begging for forgiveness.

"No, no it's okay. I'm not offended, you didn't do anything wrong, EW! No, it's ok, really! Stop groveling, it's fine, I'm not mad!" Nessa had her work cut out for her when she tried to calm the poor creature down, but when she finally did, it really wasn't worth it. Her name was Catherine, or Rin, and she was sent by the King to put a hot pad in her bed. Apparently, the "pot" was filled with hot coals and was meant to keep her bed warm.

"Well, thank you for your consideration, and thank the King for me, too," Nessa asked the skiddish maid.

"What? Oh, um, you're welcome my lady. I mean ma'am! Or, or majesty! Is it majesty!"

"No, it is none of those. It is actually Nessa. If you must call me something formal, then call me miss Nessa, if you must," she told the frightened woman.

"Oh, thank you Miss Nessa! No one ever thanks me or anything! Especially not any of the squires," she sighed, the epitome of a lovesick teenager.

"Ooh, who is it?" Nessa asked, siting next to her on the bed, completely submerged in her element.

"His name is Nealen of Queenscove, and he is so chivalrous and kind, and gentle, exactly what a knight should be! But he only notices the ladies," the brief moment of ecstacy when she thought about him was annihilated when she remembered that tidbit of information about him.

"That is not true! I've talked to him, and the only reason he doesn't love you is because he doesn't know you exist!" she said in an encouraging voice with her fingers crossed behind her back, "All you need is the right clothes, maybe some backbone, and a ticket to the ball!"she said, going into her busy-body mode.

"Ticket, Nessa?"

_This is going to take a while..._

Yee-Haw! Another chapter, in about one day! I think the tenses are a little bit messed up in this one, though. If anyone finds mistakes like that, please notify me!

So what do you think of the new Cassandra? I think that this personality fits her way better, annoying older sister (you heard me correctly, Phaidra) that keeps Nessa alive.

And introducign the maid as a more important character was a good thing, too. Even if you don't know what she looks like yet...oops .'

Ethuiliel out!


End file.
